In searching on the internet for the words “Mother’s Day,” I notice there is some variation as to the name of the day. Some web sites call it “Mothers Day.” Others call it “Mother’s Day.” I’m not sure which is right-perhaps both. I prefer “Mother’s Day” because I think each person using the term should immediately think of his or her own mother-or someone who has become a surrogate mother because of special needs or circumstances. Read the rest of this entry »
Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Why am I alive?” The sun, the stars and the whole of nature, even your own capacity to think, tell you that there is a God and that He gave you life. One day you will answer to Him for how that life was lived. Read the rest of this entry »
Being we have snow flurries forcast for this weekend at this late date in the spring, I thought I’d submit this article about snowflakes.
Snow is used as a standard of whiteness and purity. Many years ago a photographer became interested in photographing snowflakes. After taking hundreds of pictures of different flakes, he concluded that no two were exactly alike. Sadly, when these beautiful flakes come in contact with earth they soon become soiled.
Like snowflakes, no two humans are identical either. Even their fingerprints and DNA are unique. Man also becomes contaminated by the world. This is what God calls sin. A poet once described a man’s life “as a snowflake on the river. A moment there, then gone forever.” The flake goes back to the element from which it came. “Man dieth and wasteth away….and where is he?” Job 14:10.
When God created man in the Garden of Eden, he formed him “of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul” Genesis 2:7. When we die, our bodies return to dust, but unlike the snowflake, we have a soul that will live on forever, either in Heaven or in Hell. If you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you can be sure your soul will be in Heaven for “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” 1 John 1:7.
In Isaiah 1:18, God says, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.”
Reprinted from “Via” submitted by Russ Nesbit
About 40 years ago when Josh McDowell was an agnostic at college he decided to prepare a paper that would examine the historical evidence of the Christian faith in order to disprove it. He converted to Christianity, however, after he found evidence for it, not against it. Since then he has spent his time defending the Christian faith, has written thirty books about it and lectures world-wide on the subject. Read the rest of this entry »
Some people have the false notion that we will find out in “The Great Judgement Day” whether or not we have failed or passed the test of life. And then-and only then- will we be sure whether or not we have been accepted by God. This view is entirely contrary to what the Bible teaches.
Writing to the Christians in Rome, the apostle Paul makes an unequivocal statement that refutes this fallacy. He states: “There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1.) We must underscore the word “now”. It is not in some later day that we will receive our final mark. In fact, there is no grading system at all. This is why we can be free from condemnation. And be free now!
Commenting on Romans 8:1, F.B. Meyer, a Bible scholar of a Read the rest of this entry »
So Easter is over and we are back to normal. But we shouldn’t be! Did it change anything? If Easter means death and resurrection: it’s an end of something old and the beginning of something new. Hence I would be asking people if their celebration of Easter has changed them. Read the rest of this entry »
Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Why am I alive?”
The sun, the stars and the whole of nature, even your own capacity to think, tell you that there is a God and that He gave you life. One day you will answer to Him for how that life was lived.
Yes, but this doesn’t answer your question, “why am I alive?” The Bible says, “O Lord…Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.”(Revelation 4:11.) No one is able to live up to this great purpose. God is holy and cannot allow sin in His presence. The Bible says, “There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” (Ecclesiastes 7:20)
Because God wants you to be able to enjoy Him now, and to be with Him for all eternity, He gave His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to die upon the cross to meet His holy claims against you a sinner. All that God requires is that you repent and trust His Son for your salvation.
The Lord Jesus Christ bore the judgment due to sinners when He suffered under the hand of God in the darkness of the cross. “Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6) God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead and received Him into Heaven to prove His total satisfaction with the payment made on our behalf at Calvary. (Hebrews 10:12)
Through faith alone in the Lord Jesus you can know that you have peace with God, and that God will never bring up your sins against you.
Taken from Truth &Tidings/ submitted by Russ Nesbit Read the rest of this entry »
Happy Easter to everyone: I’m writing this from Orlando, Florida where we’re enjoying spring break with our family.
Most people view the resurrection of Christ as a Christian belief. Perhaps it is, but it is much more than that: it’s a fact! The Lord Jesus really did rise physically and bodily from the tomb. He did not appear to the disciples as an apparition; He was not a ghost. He Himself said, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I Myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones , as ye see Me have.” Luke 24:39.
There are at least two kinds of evidence we regularly deal with: experimental evidence and historical-legal evidence. In experimental evidence, it is possible to repeat the experiment and, when it can be consistently duplicated, the information is assumed to be correct.
Drug companies are engaged in this kind of work all the time. When lab mice have done their work and computers have crunched the data, the only reasonably way to be certain a new drug is safe is to have humans try it. But history can’t be confirmed in this way. The question of whether or not Socrates lived around 400 BC cannot be proved by experiment. This is where historical-legal evidence comes into play. This kind of evidence operates in our court rooms every day.
And in this venue the rpoofs of the resurrection are unassailable. Unquestionably, the historical fact of the resurrection would stand up in a court of law. As E.M.Blaiklock, Professor of classics, Auckland University, stated: ” I claim to be an historian. My approach to Classics is historical. And I tell you that the evidence for the life, death, and resurrection of Christ is better authenticated than most of the facts of ancient history.” A competent lawyer would agree.
Accordingly, the world will have to deal with the Lord Jesus again. In the crucifixion, the world of the New Testament thought they had got r
Surprising as it may seem, Patrick wasn’t even Irish. Historical sources report that he was born around 373 AD in either Scotland (near the town of Dumbarton) or in Roman Britain (the Romans left Britain in 410 AD). His real name is believed to be Maewyn Succat (he took on Patrick, or Patricus, after he became a Christian). He died on March 17, possibly in 460.
Furthermore, Patrick isn’t really a Saint with a capital S, having never been officially canonised by Rome. The idea of a special group of people within the Christian community is myth. The Bible teaches that every person who is “born again” is a saint. This is self-evident from the way the writers of the Bible addressed the readers of their letters in the New Testament. For example, Ephesians 1:1; “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.” Other similar passages are Phillippians 1:1; Colossians 1:1.
And Patrick did not drive snakes out of Ireland because there were never any snakes there to begin with. The snake was a revered pagan symbol, and perhaps this was a figurative tale alluding to the fact that he drove paganism out of Ireland.
Although he was not the first evangelist to Ireland, Patrick was quite successful. He made missionary journeys all over Ireland, and it soon became known as one of Europe’s Christian centers. According to tradition, he used the shamrock, which resembles a three-leafed clover, as a metaphor to explain the concept of the Trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit).
At the age of 16 he was captured in a raid, kidnapped by pirates, and sold into slavery in Ireland when it was still radically pagan. Even though his grandfather had been a priest, Patrick “knew not the true God.” But forced to tend his master’s sheep in Ireland, he spent his six years of bondage mainly in prayer. During the 6-year captivity working as a shepherd, he became a believer in Christ. He finally escaped and went to France.
Patrick was in his mid-40s (some say 60) when he returned to Ireland. Intimately familiar with the Irish clan system) his former master, Milchu, had been a chieftain), Patrick’s strategy was to convert chiefs first, who would then convert their clans through their influence. Reportedly, Milchu was one of his earliest converts. He told the people to worship, “the true Son which is Christ.” Before he came, the Irish people worshipped sun, moon and stars.
Within two hundred years after St. Patrick’s death, legends about his deeds had begun to proliferate until it is difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. We can be certain that the number of churches established was closer to 90 than the 365 some attribute to him. What is known is that he exerted a powerful influence on I Read the rest of this entry »
In the early days of the Soviet regime a certain “comrade” lectured for an hour and a half against Christianity. His aim was to prove it to be a superstition without any basis in fact. As he concluded his attack against simple faith in the work of Christ, he offered time for an open discussion. However, he stipulated that no speaker take more than five minutes. Read the rest of this entry »